Urban communities, with their myriad systemic problems of poverty, social dysfunction, and diminishing public and private resources compounded by endemic health and economic disparities, provide the single psychologist practitioner with a rewarding opportunity to become involved in urban community activities and to make a positive impact. Finding…

Most of challenges facing today's government cannot be resolved without collaborative efforts from multiple non-state stakeholders, organizations, and active participation from citizens. Collaborative governance has become an important form of management practice. Yet the success of this inclusive management approach depends on whether government…

This mixed method, single case study describes a university-community partnership between a small, suburban liberal arts college and an inner-city neighborhood located over eight miles away. The ultimate goal of the study was to improve the partnership for community and campus partners. The study does this by focusing on partnership members'…

The practice of public school consolidation has a long history in the United States. School consolidation involves several stakeholders and is tied to a community's identity. Educational leaders are faced with tough dilemmas among responding to student needs, meeting fiduciary responsibilities to constituencies, and addressing adult concerns about…

This article examines the association between perceptions of neighborhood problems and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a sample of New Zealand residents (n = 692). A modified version of the Neighborhood Problems Scale (originally developed by Steptoe and Feldman, 2001) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) were…

In 2006, the grade 12 program "Headwaters" was initiated and offered the following four courses: (1) Environment and Resource Management; (2) Canadian Literature; (3) Outdoor Activities; and (4) Interdisciplinary Studies. The author has always described the program as simply "school." The teachers teach curriculum courses…

Guided by previous studies and the community assets perspective, a concurrent mixed-method case study was conducted five years after a devastating flood to investigate how invisible community assets played a role in Princeville's rebuilding process from the flood of 1999. The independent variables in this study included retrospectively assessed…

Last year, 15 students in the Montpelier (Vermont) High School's Advanced Placement Spanish class paid class-time visits every week to a nearby dairy farm. They interacted with the Mexican laborers by conversing with them in Spanish, having picnics together, and playing cards and soccer. As the students advanced their Spanish verbal skills, they…

Although there are an increasing number of youth development programs that aim to empower young people, there is a dearth of psychometrically sound measures that can be used to assess flexible youth-led organizing and participatory research approaches that tackle a wide range of social and community problems. This study developed and tested…

To identify independent correlates of reported gambling problems amongst the Indigenous population of Australia. A cross-sectional design was applied to a nationally representative sample of the Indigenous population. Estimates of reported gambling problems are presented by remoteness and jurisdiction. Multivariable logistic regression was used to…

The EU Action Plan on Drugs (2005-2008) calls for member states of the European Union to provide information on five key epidemiological indicators. These are: general population surveys, prevalence and patterns of problem drug use, drug related infectious diseases, drug related deaths and mortality of drug users, and demand for drug treatment.…

Inspired by the late John Gardner, in May 2000 the "Alliance for Regional Stewardship" (ARS) was formed as a "peer-to-peer network of regional leaders working across boundaries to solve tough community problems." According to the ARS, regional stewardship is the leadership needed to address the complex problems of one's time.…

Purpose: This study aims to present Dramatic Problem Solving Facilitation Model (DPSFM) and Interactive Management (IM) as innovative alternative dispute resolution approaches that incorporate communication technologies in recording and analyzing data. DPSFM utilizes performance-based actions with facilitation methods to help participants design…

The author's career experiences--as an impartial observer of community building, as an advocate working from within urban communities, and as a catalyst working from the outside--have given him a unique perspective into the dynamics of institutional/community engagement. "Basically, they have left me with three overriding convictions. First,…

Wicked problems are multifactorial in nature and possess no clear resolution due to numerous community stakeholder involvement. We demonstrate childhood lead poisoning as a wicked problem and illustrate how understanding a community's ecology can build community capacity to affect local environmental management by (1) forming an academic-community…